HISTORY OF INSECTS. D 



197- The coccus pierces the bark by means or 

 a sharp and long under lip, which penetrates the 

 shoot to the very centre, causing the sap to flow 

 in great abundance : this piercing apparatus, 

 though, like the mouth of other insects, in the 

 head, is bent so far under the breast that it 

 appears to proceed from that part, and is generally 

 so described. 



198. The cocci, in the young or larva state, 

 are all alike ; they appear like little tortoises 

 fixed to the rind, and sometimes leaves of the 

 vine. When the period for this state is over, the 

 males burst their skins along the back, and fly 

 away : the females undergo no change in form on 

 arriving at perfection, nor do they become loco- 

 motive. 



199. The male and female coccus are remark- 

 ably different, not only in size but structure : the 

 male is a small, active, two-winged fly ; the female 

 is a large, inactive, and apparently lifeless lump, 

 twice the size of the male, without wings, and 

 so closely attached to the rind of the young shoots 

 on which it feeds, that it cannot be removed 

 without causing its death. 



200. When the female has attained this immense 

 size, and her whole body is full of eggs, she 

 begins laying them, her body being glued down 

 all round at the edges to the rind of the twig ; 

 but between her body and the rind, except just 

 round the edges, is a quantity of the cottony gum 



